North Main Street Stabilisation Works To Commence

It has been confirmed that stabilisation works will commence today, Tuesday, on North Main Street following the identification of a dangerous structure.

Cork City Council will continue to work with the building owners over the coming days to identify what further works need to be undertaken on the buildings, bearing in mind the Council's commitments to public safety, the city’s built heritage and to supporting North Main Street so that it remains a vibrant trading street.

While it is the City Council’s goal to protect the heritage fabric of the historic street, a full picture of the status of the structures of the buildings will only emerge as stabilisation works progress. Unforeseen circumstances may arise which mandate certain actions be taken. While every effort will be made to protect our valuable city heritage, public safety is and will remain paramount.

Cork City Council have been in constant contact with the owners of 62, 63 and 64 North Main Street over the past two weeks with a view to expediently resolving this matter. We are continuing to work with them to ensure that the following immediate measures are taken to protect both public safety and the heritage of the site:

The facade of no 63 must be stabilised.

Suitable site hoarding needs to be put in place.

Key elements of nos 62 and no 64 also need to be stabilised to ensure further collapse risk is eliminated as works to no. 63 progress.

Cork City Council is expecting a schedule of works to be made available soon. However until the final schedule of works has been received it will not be possible to accurately predict how long such works will take. However it remains the City Council’s priority to ensure that the works as scheduled and delivered in such a way that vehicular access to the street is restored as soon as possible.

Cork City Council worked with the local Street Traders to organise a Playful Paradigm public event, on Saturday the 29th of June, in conjunction with events organised by the local traders themselves. There are ongoing discussions with a view to holding another public event this Saturday which will be publicised as details become available.

During the past two weeks there has been constant communication between the North Main Street Traders and Cork City Council.

There is a lot of misinformation in circulation at present. It is important that this as addressed:

The hoarding that has been erected is more robust than the fencing that it has replaced. It has been erected to form an appropriate Health & Safety barrier between the worksite and the public walking past. It has not been erected to hide what is happening on site as has been alleged.

Every effort is being made to protect the building heritage and streetscape. No decision has yet been made that the buildings have to be demolished. This situation is under constant review. Options for going forward will become clearer as the stabilisation process progresses.

Given the onsite uncertainties it is not possible to give precise timeframes for the stabilisation works to be completed at this stage. However every effort is being made to identify and publish inductive timescales. We are very conscious that the opening of the street to traffic is of key concern to the traders on the street and are working to delivering this as soon as possible in a safe manner.

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